


construction and coffee (and little of either)

by siojo



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coffee Shops, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-30 23:06:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12119202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siojo/pseuds/siojo
Summary: marco's goal is to open up a coffee shop except the only place he can find that's not competing with anyone needs more work than he can do himself. ace co-owns the ASL construction company who might be able to help.





	construction and coffee (and little of either)

Marco frowns standing in the door of his shop, the insides were torn up from the last occupant and there were wires spilling out where there should be plug sockets and light switches. It looked like someone took a sledgehammer to at least one of the walls that linked the area to the back, leaving a mess of sheetrock and wires spilling out onto the floor, a gaping hole into the prep room behind it.

 

"This is gonna takes ages to get up and running," Thatch states leaning around Marco's side to glance inside the building. "You sure this is the shop you want? The one over on tenth is at least ready for you to get started in under a week. You wouldn’t have to do anything but hire a few people to get started and you would be ready to go."

 

"And the one on tenth is in direct competition with a Starbucks," Marco reminds him, frowning. "Which is why the previous coffee shop went out of business. This one is outside the circle of influence of all the Starbucks in the area and, on top of that, convenient for a number of office buildings, including yours. Look, there’s not a coffee shop in the area, I’ve planned this out carefully." He shows off the map on his phone.

 

"Aw, how sweet of you," Thatch laughs pushing past Marco, shoving his hand up, into the room and kicking at what might have been the counter at one point. "This is gonna take months to get up and running and a lot of money."

 

Marco nods, already calculating the costs to fix it up and get it set up the way he wanted it to be. It was fortunate that the owner was willing to discount the price of it since the last occupant had decided to trash the place after they had fallen behind on payments and been asked to vacate. He wasn’t sure if it was worth it yet, not even with that discount, not with how much damage he could already see and not without getting a quote from a contractor before that. However, it still put his plans further back than he would have liked them to be.

 

"I think Izo's got a buddy that does construction who might be willing to at least get you an estimate without breaking your bank account. Might have taken out a load bearing wall over here," Thatch says sticking his head into the hole that opened up into the back of the shop. "Which might get the place condemned."

 

"Don't say that," Marco groans. "This is the only shop for sale, or rent, that isn't in direct competition with anyone and I'm not going to lose out on it. Who's Izo's friend?"

 

Thatch blinks, "Oh, right. He did some posing in one of Izo's art classes and I guess they're friends now? I didn't ask, but Izo should be able to ask him if he's busy and if he's willing to at least take a look."

 

"That would be nice. If it's repairable than I can figure out how much it's going to cost and how much I can do myself."

 

"I sent a text to Izo to see-," Thatch cuts himself off, answering his phone, "That was fast, I just texted you."

 

Marco shook his head moving to the back as Thatch spoke with Izo, glancing at the empty space. There was far less damage back here than there had been in the front, but there was still a lot of money that would be needed to be shoved into it, considering the fact he had to purchase all the equipment that would be used. He had some of it already, sitting in storage, but not enough once the shop started picking up customers, and it would. He had already heard some rumors that a coffee shop would pick up more business than one could expect, the complaints his brother’s brought home were more than enough to tell him that.

 

"Izo's bringing his buddy around," Thatch says sliding his phone into his pocket and joining him in the back of the shop, blinking at much less damage there was. "They were having lunch when I called and I guess the dude's got the day off since he was going to be the model for the class Izo had to cancel."

 

"Convenient," Marco says with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "But also good. It means I can start planning sooner than expected."

 

"This part doesn't look so bad. That's at least something," Thatch grins, trying to look excited. "You're gonna need to expand it further aren't you?"

 

"At least cut into the secondary prep room. I'm not going to need that much space for storage and I really only need one prep room. This side should be good for everything else and then I can get the ovens installed in the back."

 

Marco was already sketching out the design plans on his notebook when the door opened.

 

"This is a mess," Izo states, frowning at the rubble. "Marco, this is Ace. Ace this is my brother Marco, the one who wants to open up his new coffee shop."

 

Ace waves, his hands sliding back into his coat pockets as he looks around, whistling softly, "Someone was not happy."

 

"Previous owner was evicted," Marco says holding out a hand, "Marco Newgate."

 

"Ace Portgas, I'm a contractor with ASL Construction," Ace says shaking it. "This is something else. Izo says that you wanted an estimate and an idea of how long it would take for the repairs?"

 

"And some changes to the place. I want to get it all set up to my specifications as well."

 

"If you have some ideas, then I can give you what it will take for the repairs and then factor in the changes afterwards? Sometimes it's cheaper to combine them depending on what you have planned," Ace explains moving further into the room. "But I'm almost positive, you're gonna have to redo the flooring."

 

"I had thought as much. I'm most worried about the wall right now, they took out one of the support beams with a sledge hammer."

 

Ace raises an eyebrow, but follows to take a better look, frowning at it in concern, "That is definitely a support beam. The real question was is it load bearing," He kneels down in the mess of sheetrock and splinters, pulling a flashlight from his pocket as he peered into the wall. "Good news, it doesn't look like it's load bearing. Bad news, it's still gonna have to get replaced."

 

"I can live with that," Marco admits, sighing in relief. "It's not load bearing?"   
  


"Nope," Ace agrees as he stands. "Just a support beam, now if it had been the one to the left of it, this place would have been fucked, that corner? Is the start of a load bearing wall."

 

"Are beams not load bearing?"

 

"Sure, but the walls are usually what we're talking about in that respect," Ace tugs his phone from his pocket and opens a video. "This is a load bearing beam."

 

Marco nods, "So like the random columns you see in stores?"

 

"Exactly. This building will have load bearing walls, everything has load bearing walls, that’s how it it is. Now you can replace those walls with columns, but that's another story. What else are you going to be doing to the place?"

 

Marco outlines his plans, pointing to the diagram in his note book and the shop itself as he went, elaborating when Ace asked and letting Ace add notes to the papers.

 

"Well, the wall we're gonna have to check this one," Ace taps it with his knuckles. "But if it's not load bearing, we should be able to move it back the way you want, otherwise, we're gonna have to do a beam of some kind to take over the support. The rest of it shouldn't be too bad. Rough estimate? About twenty thousand, that's for labor and materials."

 

"That's less than I was thinking," Marco says blinking at Ace in confusion.

 

"Taking out the wall actually would be easy and we could use some of the material from it to make the new wall, at least the support beams anyway as long as we're careful. That's not counting fixtures or anything. I don't work that, I'd have to drag Sabo down here and get his opinion on that."

 

"I would like to talk to him too then, about what he thinks the fixtures will cost, whenever he might be available."

 

Ace nods, pulling out his phone and fiddling with it, "Let's see, today is Saturday? I think Sab's got the day off too, usually Saturday's are Lu's day to take care of things. I can call and see if he's busy, if not we can work something into his schedule without too much issue."

 

"I wouldn't want to interrupt his day off."

 

"Sab's probably mooning over his girlfriend, she's out of town for the time being for a conference and he always gets weird. Or he's hanging out with Dragon again and no," Ace states already texting Sabo.

 

"Dragon?" Izo asks curiously.

 

"Conspiracy theorist and maybe leader of an underground revolutionary movement that I like to pretend that Sab's not involved with. I told you about it before."

 

"Right, that Dragon."

 

"I only know one Dragon."

 

Izo frowns looking confused for a long moment, "If you only know one, does that make Luffy's father Dragon the same Conspiracy theorist and possible revolutionary Dragon?"

 

"Yeah, Lu's honestly not even sure who his dad is and we tend to let him live with that. Bad enough he's related to-" Ace stops look up at the door and the blond waving at him from the other side of the road, waving back just as vigorously. "Sabo's here."

 

Sabo jogs across the road, slamming into the building only to skid to a halt, looking around with an eyebrow raised, "Jesus, did you get drunk and try to demo again, Ace?"

 

"Ha ha, very funny Sab. Sabo meet Marco, he wants to talk about estimates on counters and shit. I've already given him the one for the work needed and what he wants to get done."

 

"Fun. Alright, tell me what you're thinking about. Are we talking display cases in the front? Tables?"

 

"You do furniture as well?" Marco asks curiously. "I thought you worked construction?"

 

"We own our little construction/restoration/whatever else we wanna do business," Sabo says grinning proudly. "That's why it's ASL Construction. Technically we could have called it something else, but we mostly do construction and custom orders of furniture. That's Ace's other job."

 

"You mean besides posing naked for my brother's art classes?"

 

"Is that what you do with Izo?" Sabo demands turning to Ace with wide eyes. "Never mind. I don't want to know. Alright Marco, talk to me about cabinets."

 

Marco hums, “I do have a lot to say about them, Ace already heard most of it, let me get my notes.”

  
  
  


* * *

  
  


"He wants to hire us," Sabo states leaning back in his seat, one of his legs thrown over his knee as he stares up at the roof of the trailer.

 

Ace frowns at his phone, "Marco?"

 

"Mhm, apparently he's been looking online at our work and looking at a couple other places, seems that we gave him the best deal. Think we should accept? We've already got the other two projects."

 

"Luffy's got control of the Alabasta project and we know it, Vivi's already said as much and Crocodile's already been told that he's not being chosen. We can leave Luffy in charge, he's got his usual team to back him up and I had them borrow someone from Mihawk's security company to make sure there's no sabotage," Ace answers yawning. "And Dragon's project is basically your baby. I can take lead on Marco's, it's not like there's anything he's doing that my team can't fix."

 

Sabo hums softly, "We've never run three projects simultaneously before."

 

"We're gonna have to, we're getting more requests."

 

"And Luffy wants to hire more people. God his team needs more people, I still don't know how Sanji can work for Zeff and us."

 

"Magic and Luffy. Anyway, we need to expand at least some and I'm sure we could do more projects to make up for the expansion."

 

"Than looks like we're going to accept Marco's project and go from there," Ace says resting his head on his arms. "Coffee shops aren’t that complicated and I'll take Deuce over tomorrow to check it out and see what we want to start on other than pulling out all the shit on the floors and getting the permits."

 

"Sounds like fun. And paperwork. Have lots of fun with that," Sabo pats his head softly. "And Ace, don't flirt with the pretty blond."

 

Ace pouts, "But he's gorgeous."

 

"Not while you're working, you know the rules."

 

"What about after we finish working? Like can I show interest if he flirts with me? Is that allowed? And you can't say anything, you were flirting with Koala when we worked on her patio!"

 

"Ace."

 

"I need to know, Sabo."

 

"Fine, if he flirts with you, you can flirt back. But he doesn't look like the kind to flirt."

 

Ace sighs, "I can hope," He drops his head back on his arms when Sabo laughed, leaving him alone in the kitchen. "This is going to be a long couple weeks, I know just know it."


End file.
